Chasing Shadows

Part Two ~ Chapter Two

Ethan:

                  The problem with my brother Matt was that he cared too much. And after we got this school, his caring only increased exponentially. He cared for each and every one of us, and he blamed himself if we got hurt. 99% of the time it wasn’t even his fault. That’s why it was so painful to watch him slowly cave into himself each day, like a hollowed out tree that could only stay standing for so long after it gave everything it had left to give. It’s like The Giving Tree I read back in first grade. There’s only so much one has the ability to give.

                  Maybe this was why I kept a few things to myself. There were things I knew that maybe I should have told Matt. But he always thought of me as his little brother, a little defenseless kid that he had to protect. He meant it out of the deepest of his heart, I knew that, but there was a time when I needed to fend for myself. And there was also times when I needed to protect my big brother.

                  They think I’m young, they think I’m careless, they think I’m just a child.

                  But Kyle, Johnny, and I, we knew things that the others didn’t know. We did things that they would never have let us do. Matt would have claimed it was for my own “safety.” Well, for once I did not want him getting hurt. I did not want to see another part of his heart slowly break off, for him to bear the burden he shouldn’t have to bear. The least I could do was take a little weight off of Matt’s chest. Ellie’s my mom too. Mr. Grey is my responsibility too.

                  That being said, I guess I should have known Kyle, Johnny, and I couldn’t have kept this charade up very long. We are just children. We were fooling ourselves, fooling ourselves into thinking that we could keep things quiet and everything would be pulled off flawlessly.

                  Now we knew things we shouldn’t know. Now we knew things I didn’t want to know. I wouldn’t even admit the facts to myself. The big fact, the overarching, screaming, scary fact that the three of us knew. We knew who the traitor was.

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                  Mr. Grey came to us on the first week back. We were walking to dinner, just the three of us, and he popped out of nowhere as he typically does. “I’ll make you a deal,” were his first words. For some reason, seeing him there right in front of us, I wasn’t scared.

                  It was Kyle who spoke almost immediately. He looked at Mr. Grey squarely, crossing his arms. “We want to know how you cheated death. That’s the only kind of deal we’ll want.”

                  “Kyle, Kyle, Kyle,” he laughed in a condescending tone.

He shifted on his feet and regarded Kyle with a sad look.

“I bet it keeps you up at night, huh? That smart little brain of yours, whirring and whirring around trying to figure out how exactly I escaped death. Maybe it’s time you look past science and into the supernatural world, my friend. Or do you not believe in that stuff?” The wink Mr. Grey gave sent a shiver up my spine.

                  “There must be a logical explanation,” Kyle shook his head.

                  “What do you want from us?” Johnny spoke up, the only one among us three who has his head where it should be- getting away from Mr. Grey.

                  “I’ve found myself in a bit of trouble,” Mr. Grey admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

                  “Did all of your murders finally catch up to you?” That earned Kyle a dry look.